Installation

Getting started with the TV Application Layer

Create a new directory to house your application and configure your web server to serve files from it.
If you are going to make use of the (minimal) Node.js bootstrap code included within the framework, you will also need Node.js and NPM installed.

Within the application directory, check out the TAL repo to a folder named ‘antie’ (the internal name for TAL)

git clone https://github.com/fmtvp/tal.git antie

Change into the directory and use NPM to install its node.js dependencies:

cd antie
npm install

You can arrange the rest of your application as you please, but the example applications and included device configurations assume the directory structure below:

Device Configuration Files

The framework abstracts device specific portions of code to a common API. To specify which differences apply to which devices, configuration files are used [1]. The framework contains configuration files for a number of devices which specify defaults we have found to work well. You are free to override these defaults and provide your own configuration via device configuration files within your application. [2]

Example Applications

The talexample repository contains an example framework application. It demonstrates the use of some TAL widgets and media playback.

It includes its own simple web server implemented in Node.js. While TAL’s static JavaScript files can be hosted statically on any web server, the index page - containing the <script> tags that power TAL - must be generated based on the calling device’s brand and model. The Node.js server included with the example project performs both roles for simplicity.